'A Chorus Line' for the ages at Gateway

The ghost of Michael Bennett, bitching and prodding and praising, is, for the third time, stalking the stage of the Gateway Playhouse in Bellport.

For the third time in three decades, this remarkable temple of terrific theater is presenting an inspired and inspiring production of Michael Bennett, Marvin Hamlisch and Edward Kleban’s immortal ode to Broadway dance, “A Chorus Line.” The 1989 Gateway production was directed and choreographed by Bobby Longbottom, on his way to Broadway; Mitzi Hamilton, who originated the role of Val in the original “Chorus Line,” created the 1999 production and returns in 2009 for the latest edition.

In each case, and particularly in the present one, the directors/choreographers have re-created, down to the smallest delivery, gesture, pause and dance, the original Michael Bennett staging. But more, the spirit, the electrifying essence of the show, has been transported whole and in gratifying depth to the Bellport stage.

The best musical about a musical ever written, and one of the three or four best musicals of all time, “A Chorus Line” is to the musical theater what “Casablanca” is to the screen. See it two or a score or a hundred times, know the dialogue word for word, the songs note for note and the dances move for move, and it still excites you and exhilarates you, breaks your heart, tingles your spine, and brings tears to your eyes as it does the first time around.

“A Chorus Line,” whose original cast members performed their own autobiographies, taped over a long period of time by Michael Bennett and James Kirkwood, was written about theater, and that’s the only place to experience it. And, believe me, the moving and electrifying production in Bellport is an experience not to miss. Once again, casting director Robin Jay Allan has assembled a cast without a whisper of weakness. Besides being spectacular dancers, this cast, to a person, sings gorgeously, thanks to the impeccable, true-to-every-nuance musical direction of Jason Wetzel, and to the talent with whom he’s worked.

Present in the cast is Bellport native Mary Giattino, who was barely a teenager when she did the role of Bebe in the 1989 Gateway production. In 2009, she’s a card-carrying Equity veteran with Broadway credits, which she demonstrates mightily as Kristine, the dancer who can’t sing.

Kevin Neil McCready is a strong Zack, the Michael Bennett character who becomes a ghostly voice from the back of the audience as the audition that is the spine of the plot unfolds. Jonathan Hoover gets the solo proceedings off to a flying start with his “I Can Do That,” and Melissa Manning nails “Dance: Ten; Looks: Three” for all its comic worth. The striking Emily Jan Binder, as the worldly but not worn Sheila, progresses from comic cynic to—with Tiffany Topol and Lauren Ciardullo—deliver a glorious “At the Ballet,” and Yamil De Jesus delivers Paul’s long confessional movingly.

The dynamic “Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen, Hello Love” montage/crescendo is turned roof raising at its climax by the explosive, high-flying performance of Donald C. Shorter Jr. as Richie.

As Diana, the Puerto Rican dancer from the Bronx (“It’s uptown and to the right”), dynamic Christine DeLuca delivers “Nothing,” the comic/dramatic dig at Method teaching, with fine finesse, and raises the show’s already stratospheric emotional level with her rendition of “What I Did for Love.”

The role of Cassie, the original, unsparing self-portrait of Donna McKechnie, is danced and sung thrillingly by Kira Schmidt, who makes, as it should be but rarely is, “The Music and the Mirror” a shattering, exhausting 11 o’clock number.

And the most intoxicating finale/bows sequence ever staged is wonderful enough in Bellport to send any audience into cheers.

My strong advice is, no matter how many times you’ve seen “A Chorus Line,” to see this one. You won’t easily forget it.

“A Chorus Line” continues every evening except Monday with numerous matinees through October 11 at the Gateway Playhouse in Bellport, 20 minutes west of Westhampton. The box office number is 286-1133.